1921.] 



Agriculture Abroad. 



•271 



and girls who need to be taught something about western agri- 

 culture before going on the land. These would probably be 

 summer courses and would include a combination of study and 

 farm work. 



Free Courses. — Pupils must be sixteen years oi age : there 

 are no academic restrictions and no fees for tuition. The course 

 extends over two years and sessions are limited to the period 

 between October and April. Courses for boys, and for girls 

 likewise if they wish to take them, include field husbandry, 

 animal husbandry, dairjdng, shopwork and machinery, horticul- 

 ture, poultry keeping, farm management, elementary farm eco- 

 nomics, Enghsh, and farm mathematics. The sciences under- 

 lying these subjects are part of instruction so far as they relate 

 directly to practice. The schools have a number of improving 

 organisations such as athletic, musical and Hterary clubs. 



Classes for girls include cooking, sewing, nursing, household 

 management, accounting, dairying, poultry keeping and horti- 

 culture. They have instruction in the direct sciences such 

 as bacteriology, chemistry, physics, &c., relating to practice. 

 They also have English and mathematics and share in the benefit 

 from the organisations for improvement and recreation. There 

 are about six or seven teachers on the staff of each school. 



Institutional Farms. — Connected with each school is an insti- 

 tutional farm called a demonstration farm. It is generally of a 

 good size, consisting of not less than 320 acres, of which thirty 

 acres are devoted to experimental work. The rest of the land is 

 run like an ordinary farm with a manager and hired men, but 

 it is under the direction of the head of the school for the purpose 

 of ensuring that it shall exemplify farm practice of a high grade, 

 based on the findings of the school. A good deal of attention is 

 devoted to establishing conserving rotations, but this is not easy 

 on parts of the prairie where grain growing is the chief business. 

 The farms also serve for the raising of good seed and live stock, 

 which are distributed to farmers at reasonable prices. 



Further interesting particulars of the efforts made to improve 

 the crop and increase the acreage of wheat in Canada are given 

 Wheat Growin '^'^^ Agricultural Gazette for Canada for 



^ , ^ Mav last. The April issue of this Jot'rnal 

 m Canada. \ - ^ • r l- j- 



contained some information regardmcr the 



work of the Federal Government, assisted by private 

 individuals who specialised in wheat growing. The following 



